December 28th, 2009 by Darin Hufford
Who Killed Christ? (Answering the critics part 1)
I am really touched by the number of people who have been inspired by The Misunderstood God. It amazes me how many people write me and say, “Thank you for putting into words what has always been on my heart.” It is being confirmed over and over in me that the revelation of The Misunderstood God is something that is already alive in the hearts of people everywhere.
There are several areas in the book that I knew would be a theological challenge for people who have been steeped in religion. I expected criticism in these areas and my critics haven’t let me down.
On page 97 and 98 under the heading “Love is Not Self Seeking” I talk about why Christ died. I basically make the statement that a “sin offering” is not made to God, but to sin. I go on to describe sin as a beast who wants to devour you. Imagine camping with your family and you come across a grizzly bear. You had better have an offering for that bear, or it’s you he will devour. Christ basically threw himself in front of the beast of sin and allowed it to devour him instead of us. He saves us from sin.
Modern day Christianity has twisted the story around to mean something entirely different. Today we’re told that God was so enraged over our sin that He had to kill someone. That someone was gonna be us because we deserved it. We had it coming. Because God also loved us, He sent His only Son so God could kill Him in our place. Jesus supposedly “paid the price” to God for our sins.
With a theology like that it’s no wonder people cower away from intimacy with God. We’re told that He wants to be our loving Father, but that rings pretty hollow when you look at what He did to his first Son. I’m not sure I want a Father who killed His one and only Son so that He could forgive us.
The critics have an issue with me giving sin an identity in the illustration of the beast. Speaking about sin as though it’s a living beast that could require an offering to appease it and keep it from killing us doesn’t seem to be biblical. They’ve said that sin is, “Missing the mark,” and nothing more. You can’t bring an offering to that.
In Genesis 4:7 God told Cain, “…… sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
In John 8:34 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
In Romans 6:14 Paul says “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”
In Romans 7:8-11 Paul says: “….For apart from law, sin is dead……….. but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died…………For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.”
Paul takes it a step further in Romans 7:14 and says that we’re actually, “Sold as a slave to sin.”
Each of these passages clearly gives sin an identity that far exceeds our simple definition of merely missing the mark. When you look at James 1:14-15 it gets even more descriptive.
“Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
The next point that the critics make is that I say that a “sin offering” is not made to God, but to sin.
Usually they’ll use a bible program and pull up a thousand verses in Leviticus where all the sacrifice procedures are given for the temple. They’ll see the words, “bring it unto the Lord” or something like that, and immediately take that to mean that the offering was to God so that He would overlook their sins and refrain from killing them one more day.
If you really think about that theology, it doesn’t follow through very nicely. What we’re saying is that God set up a system where people could pay Him off when they sinned. It’s like God was selling indulgences long before the Catholic church ever came up with it. This is silly on several levels. First off, it implies that there is a price in God’s mind that would make sin worth it for Him. If that price was paid to God, He would be satisfied and the sin wouldn’t matter anymore.
Know this; to God there is nothing in this world that would ever make sin worth it. Sin takes from people. It depletes them and leaves them hollow and empty. It strips people of their identity and basically devours their bodies. God would NEVER put a price on that because there is no price that would make it okay for Him. It would be like me agreeing to allow a man to molest one of my children for the right price. There is NO price that I would accept for that.
Yes, it appears that the people in the Old Testament brought their “sin offerings” to God, but it wasn’t an offering that was “for” God. The sin offering was “for” sin. In other words, God didn’t accept the offering and overlook sin because the price was right. He took the “sin offering” and gave it to sin.
It’s interesting to note the amount of times in the Old Testament where it says to take the sin offering outside the camp and burn it. It’s almost as though God were saying, “I don’t even want it mixed in with my stuff, take it away and burn it.”
The real answer as to whether a sin offering is for God or for sin, is answered when the truth is revealed in the New Testament. When we read that “when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death” we begin to see that it was sin itself that kills and therefore the slaying of the animal in the Old Testament was to the one who required your life; sin. If scripture said, “when sin is full grown, God will give the sinner the death penalty,” we would know for sure that the Old Testament “sin offering” was meant to appease God. It wasn’t that way though.
The issue wasn’t how to put God’s inevitable wrath on the sinner off another day. It was, how to keep sins inevitable devouring nature satisfied until the time of Christ in order to save the life of the person. This is almost the complete opposite of what most of us have been taught.
So who was it that killed Christ? Was it God or was it sin?
After reading that several people had labeled me a heretic for believing the way I do, I said to my wife, “Where were these people when The Chronicles of Narnia movie came out?” Surprisingly, I didn’t hear any Christians picketing or bashing, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe movie, and it literally depicted exactly what I stated in my book. If you saw the movie, you’ll recall that Edmund had screwed up with the witch and she reminded Aslan about her right to have the boy’s life because of his offense. Aslan met with the witch and agreed to take Edmund’s place.
Who was it that killed Aslan? Was it God? NO! Aslan went to the dark side and the witch and all her evil creatures tortured and killed him. That was a perfect picture of what I’m stating in my book. The bible says, “The wages of sin is death,” not “The wages of God is death if you sin.” The wages are paid to SIN; not to God.
The rest of Scripture points this way as well. If we look at the James 1:14-15 verses it clearly shows the progression of it.
“Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
It is SIN that gives birth to death. It was SIN that killed Christ; NOT GOD.
Romans 6:10 puts it so simply and beautifully:
“The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.”
13 Comments
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Darin Hufford speaker, evangelist and author
of "The Misunderstood God."
5:28 am on January 27th, 2010
That makes so much sense. Thank you.
7:53 pm on February 21st, 2010
You have it wrong. To anthromorpholize evil sets us back as did tha same toward God. Sin is simply the spiritual estrangement from Go. To align our soul and mind with good is to align our nature with God and the reward is grace.
7:26 am on February 22nd, 2010
@Chuck: “To align our soul and mind with good” is something that does not need any relationship with God. It is something that any benevolently thinking human tries to achive, Christians, Buddhists, even Atheists.
It is IMHO an attempt in self-redemption. But Jesus said: “I am the way.” How do you know what is good and what is not if you don’t ask Jesus anytime to show you /his/ opinion?
5:26 am on March 3rd, 2010
Wow…thought provoking.
I’m at the point in my walk where I don’t agree with someone just because they say it, but if you can give me something to “chew on” (aka “meat” in the Bible), I appreciate it. If God’s Spirit is in me and with me, He will sort it all out…..as I seek Him…. 
So, thank you!
5:40 am on March 5th, 2010
Just finished your book and it has changed my life. I just got away from a small fellowship where my husband was pastor. Accountability and wifely submission were BIG factors there. And works, works, works. I finally called 911 because my husband physically abused me in front of my daughters and the fellowship rallied support around him! Your book, above all else, re-emphasized to me what I believe is the main point of the Bible…God loves ME not because of what I can do, but because of WHO HE IS. “God. Is. Love.”
11:31 am on April 4th, 2010
WOW!that makes perfect sense to me!the god of this world(2cor.4:4)satan the author creator of sin would demand something like that.and be within his rights since adam turned over the “deed”to him.whew!
5:40 pm on April 22nd, 2010
I believe the confusion comes in because it is God who places the curse of death upon Adam and Eve when they fall to sin. It is God who cannot accept a sinner into His presence and God who allowed Jesus to die. (Jesus allowed Himself to be killed as well of course, but any of the Holy Trinity could have saved Him.) Understanding why God cannot tolerate sin may help clear the confusion too.
7:40 pm on April 22nd, 2010
Lisa, first I want to say I hope you are well, and praise God for getting you out of an abusive environment. Hang on to God’s hand. He will never leave you or forsake you!
As to the topic; here’s how I see it: Death is the natural RESULT of sin, it’s not an arbitrary price that God decided he would flog us with if we broke His rule. We still today have the same choice Adam & Eve had in the Garden: We must decide to choose to feed upon he fruit of the Tree of Life (Jesus) or the fruit of The Knowledge of Good and Evil (self). God did NOT DEMAND that we choose The Tree of Life, “OR ELSE I’LL KILL YOU!!!” He said if we eat of the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil, “You will surely die.” He did NOT say “…I’ll kill you.” No, He pleaded with Adam and Eve to make the right choice, as he pleads with us to choose the Tree of Life, because He loves us to distraction, and He knows that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil (self) is FATAL POISON, and He knows that the NATURAL RESULT of fatal poison is a slow, painful process that naturally ends in death. So, from before we were ever made, His plan has been to be our antidote, our medicine, to allow us before we die the opportunity to turn from our wrong choice (Self/the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) before the poison consumes us and turn back to Him (the Tree of Life) and allow His death and resurrection to completely heal us of the damage the poison caused. The truth is NOBODY killed Christ. He GAVE His life for us. And even better, He took it up again for us.
7:07 pm on May 14th, 2010
The issue and resolution of how God would redeem man (considering the possibility that he would sin) was worked out long before the foundation of the world was ever laid. God is holy. He prescribed solutions for His people (in the Old Testament) to be brought back into proper relationship with Him, through blood sacrifice. Jesus offered Himself long before people were ever created. I was never taught that God was so enraged with sin that He killed His Own Son! I am sorry that you were taught that, Darin. That was a lie. Jesus overcame sin and death – He has given us the power to overcome it as well. He removed it’s ability to steal, kill and destroy us – it’s our choice as to whether or not we will avail ourselves of His victory. Why argue over whether it was God or sin that killed Jesus? The fact remains that if we abide in Him; under the shadow of the Almighty God, the enemy cannot touch us.
9:06 pm on May 14th, 2010
Well, I can think of about six million reasons why we should argue over whether or not it was God or sin that killed Jesus. The biggest being that if it was God as most modern day Christians have been taught, that makes people about a thousand times less likely to give God their heart in relationship. They’ll do what ever they need to do in order to make it to heaven but they won’t open their hearts to intimacy with a God like that. It’s an extremely significant conversation!!!!
I kind of get the feeling Michele that you didn’t read the book, “The Misunderstood God” did you? I could be wrong, but I have a feeling I’m right in this.
7:35 am on May 15th, 2010
I totally agree. Great post!
2:38 am on June 15th, 2010
I have not read your book, but love these discussions.
Sin explained as just missing the mark is too easy.
When you want to hit the mark with your arrow, when you are learning archery it is evident you will miss most of the time. Probably you´ll hit the mark by change, but missing will be the normal thing.
So when you learn you goanna make mistakes. That is how we learn.
So then there is no sin.
Sin, to me, is missing the mark deliberately.
The sinner knows he sins.
This is called cardinal sin, but that is making a hierarchy of sin.
There is only one kind of sin: deliberate sin and that´s cardinal indeed.
Translated from Dutch “cardinal sin” is called: “Death sin”.
In it is seen what it really means: by deliberately sinning you are dying. To yourself. And by that to God. Because you are yourself God.
When I sin I make myself death to my creation.
Death to what I would and could be.
By sinning I am stiffening me, my world and all my possibilities.
By sinning I ran out of what is possible.
And there comes wishdom and wisdom in.
And forgiveness.
Sin is not deliberately possible; deliberately seen as consciously aware.
Every sinner is unconscious to what (s)he really is doing.
Because when the sinner really (consciously) would know; (s)he couldn´t do it.
The wishdom of every sinner is also towards that what the sinner sees as the right way to get creation done. But wishdom without wisdom is wishdumm.
So every sinner is forgiven, because (s)he really doesn´t know what (s)he is doing.
(S)he is learning.
To hit the mark.
And in Love, in God, you may learn, and learn and learn, and you may make any mistake possible.
And when you have learned, and, so mastered, you can only make mistakes by being unconscious.
And learning to be consciously aware is yet another kind of learning.
I do thank God to make all this possible.
That´s a real gift: from freedumm to freedom.
In love,
Jos
4:43 pm on July 26th, 2010
The only way to serve God is in spirit and truth. The only example we have for that spiritual walk is Christ himself. What did he do with his life to live a spiritual life? Then go and do likewise. Each of us has our own spiritual walk with God that we need to take within Jesus as our light to guide us down the path of human darkness. Not to say that being human equates to living in the dark, but rather that being human means we are born into sin that leads us away from God. Sin itself is not alive, we, as sinners, bring it into existence through our sinful ways. “To live is Christ” means to live in Christ is to live as Christ. If we do not we are not living a spiritual life. For Christ was like God in everything he did and said, so to be like Christ is to be like God. Hence, “The kingdom of heaven is upon you.” “May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” To live a spiritual life on earth is to live as you are living in heaven. Therefore we bring the kingdom to earth through our life in Christ, unless we forget he is our example of how to live on earth. This is what he meant by new wine in an old wine skin. Consider the life you lived before Christ as old wine, your flesh the old wine skin, and a life in Christ as the new wine. If you are not serious about your spiritual life in Christ then the new wine will just leak through the old wine skin and be wasted. But if you are serious about a spiritual life in Christ, then the new wine will remain in the new wine skin, made so through grace and none of it will be wasted. Remember, we are still reminded to carry out good deeds in faith. Scripture tells us that faith without works/good deeds is dead. But we must also remember that God is always looking for the willing heart that does such things. Give with a cheerful heart, remember? We still need to carry out the good deeds that our Father wants us to do. He wants us to be him to everyone else in doing so we live a spiritual life before him. So, to live is Christ is to live as Christ, to live as Christ is to live as God. To live as God is to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth which brings us to, “May your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” We are the heirs to the kingdom of heaven and our Father wants us to live on earth as if we are already there. Showing our power and authority not to men, but to the one he removed from heaven for rebelling against him and creating the original sin that he brought to earth with him. So love your Father with all that is you, love your neighbor as yourself, and listen to your brother Jesus and all will go well with you.